A Guide for Hopeless Romantics
by jerna.collins
Summary: Juvia sure knows her own way to a man's heart, but out of spite in proving that the content of the book is indeed trash, she reads the first tip but ends up convinced that maybe it would not hurt to perhaps try it. Gruvia.


**A GUIDE FOR HOPELESS ROMANTICS**

**# # #**

_Nervous: jumpy, panicky_

**# # #**

_Tip # One _**Smile Well and Often**

_Flash the person you love a genuine smile whether you're directly looking at him or not. Who knows? He/she might catch you in a candid moment wearing that smile and might fall for you. Remember: Smiles are contagious; so they may also find their lips curl up when they see yours doing it in the first place!_

**# # #**

Levy has been cleaning her library and therefore this includes her giving some of her books to the other girls in Fairy Hills in order to give space to the new ones she just purchased.

With this, Levy Mcgarden decided to give Juvia one of her books which is entitled: _A Guide for Hopeless Romantics._

Of course, the water mage being a polite person thanks the other bluenette and watch her go back to her own room before she rolls the hell out of her eyes and swears to God she wouldn't even dare to take a peek at that thing. _A GUIDE TO MAKE SOMEONE FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU?!_

Excuse you, but Juvia sure knows her own way to a man's heart, thank you very much. She has her own style in the love business but said style hasn't seemed to work out yet.

But out of spite in proving that the content of the book is indeed trash, she reads the first tip but ends up convinced that maybe it would not hurt to perhaps try it.

**# # #**

The following morning, everyone in the guild is a little bit surprised by the water mage's strange mood. She's been smiling without any reason. Even if Gajeel had told her earlier that he was almost killed by a monster during his mission with Laxus—Gajeel being used yet again as a lightning rod—Juvia still smiles ear to ear as if hearing one of her closest friends getting killed is a pleasant thing to ever happen.

Lucy, being concerned about her well-being, approaches Juvia and talks to her.

"Are you okay, Juvia?" she asks, worry evident in her voice.

Juvia gives her an airy laugh as she rolls her eyes and says, "Of course, Lucy-san. Don't be an idiot." *airy laugh*

"Have you been sleeping well?" the Celestial Mage presses.

"Lucy-san thinks Juvia is out of her mind"—airy laugh—"but Juvia is perfectly okay," she says. "Just doing everything for the sake of love, as usual."

"If you say so," Lucy says and walks away.

**# # #**

Gray is happy to find out that Juvia is happy today.

No matter how random or accidental it might be, he could still catch her smiling and she looks very pretty—as if her positive aura and smile radiates some sort of energy that might spread inside the guild and make everyone smile as well.

At least, the gloomy girl is gone, Gray thinks.

But, what the fuck, man she looks very weird having her lips stretch like a freaking rubber band all the time—helping Wendy treat Gajeel's injuries, looking out the window and even saying she has to use the bathroom to poop.

But she looks beautiful, Gray admits.

And with this, he questions the universe why on earth would they be in a good mood at the same time.

**# # #**

_Tip # Two _**Start Working the Eyes**

_Some people might be 'butt people', others might have a thing for legs, but, experts say: everybody is an 'eye person.' Want to make him/her go putty? Set those seductive eyes on and use it on them. Skin them with your stare and you might leave them bare_.

Juvia has brought her copy of _A Guide for Hopeless Romantics._ No matter how many times she's told herself that she is so stupid of ever doing this, but still it really wouldn't hurt to try. Who knows, maybe she'll thank this book someday if ever the said tips will work.

So, she sits on one of the seats of the bar requesting Mira to give her a drink while flipping her azure hair as gracefully as she could with her hand. Gray is sitting two seats away from her though there is no one in between them.

**# # #**

Before the ice mage has found himself at the bar with the water mage, he did something very uncharacteristic that he had no one to tell it to because he'll be a fucking idiot if ever anybody will have knowledge that a cold guy like him would be doing such.

He looks at Juvia with such intensity that the water mage must have noticed that he is staring intently at her through her radar that she looks to his direction and they lock eyes for a long time.

None of them dares to break eye contact.

Juvia blinks slowly, almost seductively; batting her cobalt blue lashes in an enthralling way and she continues to fix her cerulean orbs upon his dark blue ones—like the night sky without stars as it is about to rain.

Though, he is an ice mage, Gray's whole body gets hot and he could feel the tension between them, enclosing them in a circle; blocking out everyone else.

Like why the fuck is he even doing this?

But breaking eye contact means losing and he doesn't intend to lose at all.

A non-tsundere part of him wishes that Juvia will flick her eyes away from him while flushing in embarrassment.

And only does their little game end when Gray gets hit with a wooden chair square in the face thrown by Natsu at him, challenging him into a fight. He curses himself and the Dragon Slayer as well and he unconsciously strips and walks toward Natsu and he sends Juvia a final glance.

She looks at him with those beautiful eyes and there is no way their sexual tension will subside.

**# # #**

She finishes her drink and quickly goes into the bathroom and sits on the toilet while opening her copy of _A Guide for Hopeless Romantics._

There are still like fifty more tips in order to get someone to be attracted to you: _bite your lips at times, be witty, tell them some pickup lines, make them food, laugh at everything they say even when it's not funny, _etc. It's endless.

Not that she's in a rush or anything but she's really curious about the last part and so she flips the pages over to the last step and sees:

_Tip # fifty-five __**Tell Them How You Feel**_

_If you have read this book thoroughly and have tried doing some of the tips, and still it wouldn't do to convince him/her to like you back, you might as well consider this tip your last resort. Talk to them as honest as you can and be sincere. Nothing is more attractive than being genuine to someone you love._

Meh. Like she could even barely put up with the first two, how much more with this one? It is definitely a no. She opens the door of the cubicle and goes to the sink and looks at herself in the mirror. Whatever. It's just a stupid book and anyway, she might not be aware of this but she has been doing pretty good and has lots of progress when speaking about chipping the ice of the raven-haired man.

She goes out of the bathroom and bumps into the chest of no other than the birthday suit princess, not even embarrassed for his nudity (he's only got his boxers on; it's a beautiful sight anyway). Not to mention when Juvia bumps into him, something he's been taking hold in his hands dropped to the floor.

The water mage ducks to get it and see a familiar shade of green with gold printed letters of: NUMBER ONE MAGNOLIA'S BESTSELLER.

Yep, you have guessed it: It's the _A Guide for Hopeless Romantics._

"Gray-sama, why do you have this book?" Juvia asks as she picks it up.

Gray reaches and snatches it like a hawk and hides it behind his back. He flushes pink.

"Uhhhh... Nothing. It's just a stupid book."

Juvia gasps and giggles. "And Gray-sama reads it, too?"

Gray thrusts his chin up and says with as much confidence as he could muster, "Yeah! Well, it's none of your business."

Then realization dawned on his expression when he realized what the water mage said. "What do you mean by 'too'? YOU ALSO HAVE A COPY?"

Juvia blushes and bites on her lower lip. "Well, Levy-chan has been cleaning her library and gave Juvia her copy."

Gray nods solemnly. "Well, Erza gave this to me. But yeah whatever it's pretty stupid."

The water mage inches closer to him and his back hits the wall. She draws her face closer to his and they meet eye to eye and Juvia says, "If it's so stupid, Gray-sama, why did you follow tips one and two, then?"

Gray's mind races for a reason, a lie, ANYTHING in order not to make him look like some lonely desparate man or something.

But you see, he is a tsundere and probably this book really is what he needs. But still, his own style would have done it, yes?

He doesn't know what to answer to the water mage and so a smile slowly creeps on her face and she whispers, "Juvia is not as shallow as everyone thinks."

She winks and walks away, her hips swishing still working and following some tips from the book.

"You know what? Fuck this book, man. I almost got caught," Gray says to himself and his mind wonders, _caught doing what?_

**# # #**

Erza is sitting on the table with Levy with a frown on her face. They definitely set Juvia and Gray up.

Levy sighs with disappointment that anything didn't happen in between those two at all.

Erza just pats Levy's shoulder saying, "Well, I guess we can't force it out of Gray. Better be canon even with slow progress than being forced with a book or pressure."

Levy nods in agreement.

* * *

**AN: **Hi! I hope you liked it. Please leave your reviews. Thank you so much for reading ^^


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